18-year-Old Transgender Activist Commits Suicide

A year after being voted homecoming king at East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina,transgender youth advocate Blake Brockington has committed suicide ..

The 18 year old pictured above in 2014 told the Charlotte Observer in January that he never felt comfortable wearing dresses, even though he but was still forced to wear them.

“It didn’t make sense. I felt like a boy,

Brockington chose the name “Blake” because it sounded masculine and came to him in a dream. But his family didn’t take his transition well and he moved in with a foster family after he became open about his identity.He said…

“My family feels like this is a decision I made,They think, ‘You’re already black, why would you want to draw more attention to yourself?’ But it’s not a decision. It is who I am. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

He also said telling his family about being transgender was the hardest part of the transition.

“That was single-handedly the hardest part of my trans journey,””Really hateful things were said on the Internet. It was hard. I saw how narrow-minded the world really is.”